and in any case there's no such thing as anthropogenic global warming so why don't all you limp-wristed lettuce-munching pinko enviro-nazis fuck off back to (what remains of) the Amazonian rain forest seeing as you love plants so much!

Crap subtitle opportunity missed?

“People for right or wrong treat Facebook as something that's more personal and private,”

Meh...more fool them then.

Obviously not good and needs to be fixed (especially for more significant apps like Google Calendar) but really, people need to take some responsibility for the how/where/what of their on-line activity.

And you think...

...that banks get Trusteer Rapport for free? And do you imagine banks don't recover such costs from us in the form of charges and interest rates?

But that's not the main point, which is that any IT security outfit worth its salt offers analysis of mitigation that can be implemented by sys admins and end users. Without that this is hard to distinguish from a corporate form of scareware: buy our software or your customers will be pWn3d!!!

VirginMedia =/= Customer Service

As a longstanding VM (Telewest, Blueyonder) customer none of this is any surprise. The 1st line call centre staff now seem trained to deny any problem their end or with their kit unless something has already been placed on their service staus pages (a rarity in itself). However if you are technically literate *AND* persistent they relent, give you the details of the problem and, if you're grumpy enough, offer a rebate.

It seems to me the only reason for this is to prevent large numbers of lay users from receiving legitimate rebates. This fits in entirely with VM's service model of "spend as little as possible on infrastructure, support and service to enhance marketing and milk existing/new customers as cheaply as possible".

All they have in their favour is that by and large it's a pretty reliable service. When it goes wrong: epic fail.

Ambulances with Windscreens: yes

Truly impressive how you balance on that fence...

...but that is the privilege of the largely white educated middle-classes. I suppose at least you have the decency to own up to your position. Being white myself it's easier for me to avoid the unpleasant attention of the likes of the EDL, BNP and their fellow travellers but I have Muslim (and others of South Asian origin - the racist knuckle-draggers make little distinction) friends, neighbours and work colleagues who do not have that luxury.

Typical of nice middle-of-the-road liberals your logic is based on several flawed assumptions:

(i) that we can have a reasonable, informed and productive debate with the likes of the EDL and the BNP - they are not interested and away from their "just within the letter of the law" public face their activists and followers frequently resort to violence, intimidation and thuggery;

(ii) that there is somehow an equation between "Muslim" and "extremist" - if you even know any Muslim people personally I challenge you to find one that even approaches extremism - what the EDL mean by "Muslim extremist" is someone who has the temerity to stand up for some the rights and privileges that you and I take for granted as British citizens;

(iii) that it is perfectly OK for the racists and fascists to go about their business with anonymity - NO WAY: if there is one productive thing about this hack (beyond a bit of propaganda and a good chuckle at the expense of the knuckle-draggers) it is that these people are named and shamed - do you never ask yourself why they are so coy about their political affiliations being associated with their real identities?

(iv) that this kind of discussion on comment boards actually matters one jot - much as I love El Reg what you and I are engaging in is just froth - wake up and smell the coffee! :-)

$60Bn?

Blimey! Just as well these crazy bankers aren't involved in running the world's financial systems, with mad valuations like that we might end up in a situation where huge investments turned out to not worth the paper they were printed on! Oh..wait a minute...

(iii) provide warranty replacement components rather than waste sending out an "engineer" (read: poor sop from a third-party outsource with ECDL and a screwdriver)? Nah!

(iv) simply deliver orders to the right bloody campus? Nah!

When we tendered for new suppliers RM's kit arrived late, was under-spec and still over-priced. Frankly they just did not seem to give a shit that we'd been buying thousands of systems from them for the past few years. Good riddance! No wonder they are struggling.

Be fair Robert...

...this is the Vulture Towers International Media Megacorp (missed opportunity for initials to spell VIMTO there I feel...suggestions?) we're talking about: these uber-hacks are probably coked off their tits and on their second bottle of scotch by lunchtime each day.

iEvolve (but not quite fast enough...)

Yep, sad, but legislation is hardly going to stop this. If some people are too stupid to not be distracted by their shiny phone while doing something potentially hazardous the threat of prosecution is hardly going to improve their survival chances.

El Reg Standard Unit Required

Really Andrew this will not do! FoTW? FTW! (again) The really does not qualify.

What we really need is a Reg Standard Unit of flamieness and only e-mails that achieve a certain pre-defined quotient (possibly annually adjusted to account for flame inflation) may be considered for the title FoTW. El Reg readers deserve such quality control.

Naturally as I am only a humble reader I am not qualified to determine the precise nature of this measure. However it may include such factors as:

(i) statistical analysis of the deviation of key-presses away from the intended character;

In your opinion...

Opinions are great: I have a lot of those too, but when the hard facts blow my opinions out of the water it's time to re-evaluate. Check your favourite hardware tech sites: Sandy Bridge delivers X58 performance at a similar price point to the mid/high-end Phenom II with significantly lower absolute power consumption (never mind power/performance). It's not a breakthrough innovation but to argue that that doesn't represent some kind of technical excellence is pure semantics.

Of course you are right that the vast majority of chip sales are made without reference to the technicalities or the fact that Intel behave in a monopolistic, underhand and possibly illegal manner. But those are hard facts too, that's the world that AMD has to survive in and it will only do so by bringing products to market that are significantly superior to Intel's offerings. Will Fusion be such? Who knows? And therefore, as of now, who cares? You and I may love AMD's product but the faceless market could not care less: they have delivered good (but not Intel-beating) chips late too often recently.

The same goes for Nvidia: it doesn't matter if they unscrupulous back-stabbers (though I'd like to know what your evidence is for that), it can only be a mistake for AMD to upset them to the advantage of Intel. Not nice but true.

AMD turned negative...

At the point when Intel started coming back at AMD technically with it's Core 2 desktop CPUs and subsequent Xeons based on similar technology AMD made the big mistake of becoming defensive and trying to consolidate the small gains that they had made against Intel.

This mistake, that simply lost time against a newly fast-moving Intel, was compounded by the purchase of ATI. Way to piss-off the company making the best desktop chipsets for your processors and (though it's been quite a while coming) push them into the arms of your deadly rival.

Speaking as a long-time AMD fan Fusion has sounded great...for far too long. Sandy Bridge is here now, technically excellent and aggressively priced. Add to that the Intel-Nvidia kiss-and-make-up and it's hard to see AMD returning to it's position as a small but serious competitor in the chip biz. Shame really.

Apologies...

You have a point but...

...who is the classy compact aimed at? I bet the biggest chunk of the market is to people who already have a DSLR system for those times when it's impractical to carry around body, a couple of lenses and a flash.

And for functionality the major DSLR systems kick the butt of µ4:3 every time: more/better/3rd party lenses (without any need for adapters), the option of full-frame sensors four times as big as µ4:3 (higher res., less noise, better low-light performance, etc.) and...ermm...camera bodies that aren't nothing - I wonder if you could persuade a pro to part with their Canon EOS 1D or Nikon D3 (or even the next couple of models down) in exchange for µ4:3?

µ4:3 is a nice alternative to a bugdet DSLR in the consumer - it's a different beast from cameras like the LX5 or G12.

Yeah, all those pro photographers are stupid!

I mean why else would 99% of them be using DSLRs with that pointless bouncy-light-reflex-thingummy?

In case you haven't noticed, no digital display device (let alone the small LCD display/electronic viewfinder found in a camera) is remotely capable of capturing the subtlety of light, colour, contrast, dynamic range, focus and depth of field that the human eye can perceive through that mirror and pentaprism. Yaknow? I hope you do now.

Neither compact nor EVIL...

...the Leica & the Canon have (and always will have in these ranges) optical viewfinders, and I would respectfully suggest that attempting to change the lens on the Canon may invalidate one's warranty.

</pedant>

But no mention of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5? Surely a much more significant "classy compact" release for the serious photographer than the pointless Micro Four Thirds DMC-GH2 (http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Products/LUMIX+Digital+Cameras/Stylish+Compact/DMC-LX5/Overview/5435432/index.html) - it's that or G12 I'd be (vainly) hoping to find in my stocking next Saturday!

They *weren't* using SSL??

OK...I need help people...my jaw dropped so far that it's locked open and if it weren't the middle of winter with four inches of snow on the ground I'd be in danger of swallowing flies. Someone get round here with a crow-bar or something.

However it is nice to have one's prejudices about the technical illiteracy of these worthless web2.0rhea w@nkers confirmed :-)

Double smug mode: defence in depth

As the article notes, this is a relatively rare occurrence, a critical 0day for Firefox. But it highlights an important security principle: defence in depth. In this case the vulnerability it either partially or totally mitigated by a number of other factors: (i) a secure OS like Linux; (ii) the ability to browse without your pants down (NoScript, AdBlock, etc.) and (iii) not using administrative logins for day to day usage.

Too right...

...but that truth was also a lot more painful for the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians slaughtered by British and American military forces in these illegal wars. And for the millions still suffering the ongoing consequences.

Actually: how to be genuinely open and make it a success

Try reading the article: this is nothing to do with Firefox. It is all about an excellent Open Source developer producing a genuinely open service to monetize its investment.

At the same time they are exposing the "open" hypocrisy of Google by creating an app store framework that is: (i) usable by everyone; (ii) essentially browser & platform independent and (iii) standards-based. In my book that makes Mozilla very brave and worthy of our support in this endeavour.